Ten Years After The Dance (For Woo Woo) Poem by James P. Roberts

"Si ton oeil, ton souris, ton pied, m'ouvrent la porte
D'un Infini que j'aime et n'ai jamais connu? "

-Baudelaire

I

Your ghost whistles through gray halls
on a sham summer night.
To freeze alone is the most comforting of deaths.
To be frozen ten years is no comfort at all.
When the heart develops a cryogenic laboratory
modern science betrays its purpose.


V

Sporadic messages convey your continued existence -
apart from a castle-wracked memory.
New Orleans must be crazy on Tuesday.
Wednesdays and ten years are lean, indeed,
when every day resonates with marriage proposals
and obituaries in the newspaper.


X

Scraps, and a splicing machine work wonders.
Replay the collage, the audience is silent,
except outside gray halls.And outside, the stars
crackle and explode in a ten year sky.
Apparition, be silent.What use of words?
We know where we've been; know that we'll go.